


Sugar With the Sweet Talk

by galacticsugar



Series: Great British Bake Off AU [3]
Category: 5 Seconds of Summer (Band)
Genre: Baker Luke Hemmings, Established Relationship, Fluff, M/M, Tumblr Prompt, just spending some time in the kitchen, meg let's dominate it, oh i love that that's an existing tag, technically takes place in the great british bake off au, this is really the grossest fluff, truly toothache-inducing
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-25
Updated: 2021-01-25
Packaged: 2021-03-18 06:28:14
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,417
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28987818
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/galacticsugar/pseuds/galacticsugar
Summary: Luke’s hands are shaking as he carefully pipes frosting onto a three-tier s’mores cake. It’s for Michael’s birthday, and Luke wants it to be perfect. Michael may be a troublemaker and a pain in Luke’s ass, but he deserves a perfect birthday cake for taking care of Petunia while Luke was filming Bake Off.***for the tumblr prompt "come here. let me fix it." the sequel: fluff version.
Relationships: Luke Hemmings/Ashton Irwin
Series: Great British Bake Off AU [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2132871
Comments: 2
Kudos: 30
Collections: tumblr prompts - ways to say i love you





	Sugar With the Sweet Talk

**Author's Note:**

  * For [lifewasradical](https://archiveofourown.org/users/lifewasradical/gifts).



> take 2 for the tumblr prompt "come here. let me fix it." from [amanda](https://lifewasradical.tumblr.com/). 
> 
> i had already written this super fluffy story for the prompt, but it felt too fluffy, even for me, and then i got emo and rewrote it as [this](https://archiveofourown.org/works/28986999) instead. 
> 
> but i figured...the fluff already exists, might as well put it out there.

Luke’s hands are shaking as he carefully pipes frosting onto a three-tier s’mores cake. It’s for Michael’s birthday, and Luke wants it to be perfect. Michael may be a troublemaker and a pain in Luke’s ass, but he deserves a perfect birthday cake for taking care of Petunia while Luke was filming _Bake Off_. The lady of the house is laying in front of the windowed doors to the back yard, watching birds flitting through the bushes as Luke fusses over the cake.

He’s trying to create a likeness of one of Michael’s favorite videogame characters, but decoration has never been Luke’s forte. Luke loves things that are interesting to look at - bold or pretty or intricate - anything that can bring some aesthetic beauty to his life. Unfortunately, he’s shit at actually _creating_ that kind of beauty, and his cake kind of looks like _The Scream_ , if it was painted by a 7-year-old.

Luke’s been stooped over the counter for 20 minutes, growling intermittently every time he draws a line of frosting that seems right in the moment, but ends up making the whole thing look worse. His neck aches and he’s frustrated and he’s getting to the point where he just wants to give up and tell Michael it really is supposed to be _The Scream_ and no, he’s absolutely sure Michael is a huge fan of Norwegian expressionist painting, is that not right?

Luke laughs to himself as the thought crosses his mind, attempting to blow a stray curl out of his eyes instead of using his frosting-coated fingers. The curl lands right back where it started, partially obscuring the vision in Luke’s right eye. He sighs and starts to add another dab of frosting. One last try at salvaging the cake decoration before admitting defeat and giving Michael _The Scream_. But right as he squeezes the piping bag, Petunia lets out an abrupt bark, sharp and loud. Luke startles and accidentally squeezes the piping bag _hard_ as the bark echoes through the kitchen. 

That’s just great. Now there’s a giant blob of brown frosting right in the middle of the cake, completely ruining anything resembling the likeness of a person. “Goddamnit!” Luke yells, tossing the piping bag down on the counter with a loud thud. He puts his head in his hands, frosting hair no longer at the top of his list of concerns.

“What’s wrong?” Ashton’s head pops around the corner, concerned eyes scanning Luke’s body to make sure he’s not cut, burnt, or otherwise broken. 

Luke drops into one of the dining room chairs with a grunt, hands sliding from his head to massage at the back of his sore neck. “I fucked up Michael’s cake.”

Ashton’s eyes slide over to the cake sitting on the counter. “Looks okay to me.”

“That’s because you can’t see the decoration from over there. It looks like I dumped Petunia’s poop bag on top of it,” Luke says tragically.

Ashton snickers as he walks over to inspect the cake, and a small smile threatens the defeated expression on Luke’s face. It’s hard not to smile when Ashton’s laughing. Once he gets a closer look at the cake, Ashton breaks into a fit of giggles. 

“See,” Luke moans, “it’s terrible!” He throws his head back and closes his eyes. He feels Ashton’s hands on his shoulders, kneading into his sore muscles, and he slowly opens his eyes to look up at him. “Come here,” Ashton says, tugging on Luke to try to get him to stand up. “Let me fix it.”

Luke stays put, grabbing Ashton by the waist and pulling him into his lap. They’re still new, and Luke still feels faint disbelief that this is something he can just _do_. “I don’t think it’s fixable,” he says, pouting into Ashton’s shoulder. 

“Not with that attitude.” Ashton attempts to escape Luke’s grasp and stand up.

“No.” Luke presses his hands firmly to the top of Ashton’s thighs, holding him in place. “I’m over it. I’ll just start over and make a new cake.” He kisses Ashton’s neck lightly, just under his ear. 

Ashton shudders and leans into it for a moment, then quickly pulls back, out of the reach of Luke’s lips. He takes Luke’s face in his hands, fingers warm on Luke’s jaw, and looks him in the eyes. “That will take you forever. We only have a couple hours until Michael comes over.”

“I can do it,” Luke says resolutely, leaning forward to try to catch Ashton’s lips in a kiss. But Ashton’s hands are still on his jaw, holding his head in place. “Ashton,” he whines. “Lemme kiss.”

“Just let me help you. I’m good with decorating.”

Luke scrunches his nose, annoyed that Ashton’s trying to reason with him _and_ preventing him from getting kisses. He’s been working hard in the kitchen all day; he deserves this. He shakes his head stubbornly.

“If you let me help you decorate instead of starting over, there will be more time for kisses later,” Ashton reasons.

Luke sighs deeply, looking over Ashton’s shoulder at the hideous cake with a frown. “Fine.”

He lets Ashton pull him to his feet and leans his hip on the counter while Ashton studies the cake and the array of piping bags littering the counter. After a few seconds of consideration, he picks up a spatula and spreads the offensive pile of brown icing over the whole cake.

“No!” Luke gasps, watching in horror as the remains of his (admittedly terrible) artwork are smudged into oblivion, replaced with a flat layer of muddy brown frosting. 

“It’s okay.” Ashton smirks at Luke, patting his arm before he picks up a piping bag full of green frosting. “Trust the artistic process.” 

Luke rolls his eyes, but he leaves Ashton alone and quietly watches him pipe frosting onto the cake. When he’s concentrating particularly hard, Ashton’s tongue catches between his teeth and his eyes squint into an intense stare. Every so often he flicks them to the reference photo taped to the corner of the counter, and Luke gets lost in the flashes of hazel and the flutter of eyelashes.

Luke especially likes watching Ashton’s hands as he works, long fingers gently squeezing the piping bag _just so_ and Luke swallows hard, thinking about what else those fingers can do. But then his eyes travel down, and Luke inhales sharply when he sees that Ashton has created a perfect likeness of the character outlined against the brown frosting background.

“How did you do that?” he demands, nudging Ashton with his hip.

“Whoa, I’m not done yet.” Ashton steps out of Luke’s reach and carefully flicks his wrist, adding another delicate frosting flourish to his design, then sets the piping bag down and slides the cake back away from the edge of the counter.

“How did you do that?” Luke repeats accusingly.

“I just looked at the picture and drew what I saw.” 

Ashton braces himself for Luke’s response, but Luke just shakes his head incredulously and captures him in a hug, trapping Ashton’s arms against his sides. “Thank you.” 

The flurry of activity catches Petunia’s interest, and she comes trotting over, play-bowing at their feet with a telltale gleam in her eye. 

“Don’t you dare start barking, Petunia,” Luke says, watching her over Ashton’s shoulder. “That’s what got us into this mess in the first place.” 

She wags her little tail and cocks her head. Luke shakes his head back at her in a silent warning and drops his arms, freeing Ashton to start cleaning up the counter.

“I would have liked to have seen what the cake looked like before you dumped brown frosting on it,” Ashton says, carefully digging the tips out of the piping bags and setting them in the kitchen sink. 

Luke snorts. “No you wouldn’t have. It looks so much better now.”

“Are you going to tell Michael I helped with the decoration or are you going to take all credit for it?” Ashton side-eyes Luke as he covers the cake.

Luke jumps up so he’s sitting on the counter, feet kicking lightly against the cabinets underneath. “Depends.”

With the cake safely stowed away, Ashton slides over to stand in front of Luke, hands braced on the counter on either side of Luke’s hips. “Depends on what?”

“On whether I’m satisfied with the kisses I was promised.”

Ashton rolls his eyes. “I knew it was going to be something awful.” But he leans in and kisses Luke anyway.

**Author's Note:**

> i'm on tumblr [@staticsounds](https://staticsounds.tumblr.com/); come say hi!


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